>> this is al jazeera america. live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. breaking news, an american helicopter crash notice united kingdom, reports of four people killed. frigid weather turns deadly for portions of the country, and pictures from nasa showing our immense this storm has been. in south sudan, care forgive that country's orphans. today we talked to a family about why they went back in.

>> and we begin with breaking news, the u.s. air force reports one of its helicopters have crashed in the united kingdom. there are reports of four people killed. the helicopter went down during a training mission on the east coast of great britain. local police have cordoned off a quarter mile area around the scene, which is near an u.s. air base. more on this story coming up. we'll try to reach phil ittner for the very latest. the deep freeze has turned deadly, 11 people have died. people who have had to go outside today did everything they could, well, everything they could think of to stay warm, including lots of layers. a lot of people have been stranded by the cold as flights have been canceled, cars and trains have gotten stuck. jonathan betz is live for us now at new york penn station. jonathan, boy, how is this deep freeze impacting travel for

people across the country? >> yeah, a lot of people impacted, tony. frankly, frozen in their tracks, whether at train stations or airports for the second straight day records are falling as the bitterly cold arctic air moves across the country. >> reporter: from the midwest where indiana's governor has declared a state of emergency for 29 counties. >> temperatures kept dropping in the house. and my son was very concerned. >> reporter: south to georgia which saw snow in single digit temperatures for the first time in decades. schools closed, shelters opened in atlanta. >> i'm wearing long underwear. i feel like i'm going skiing but i'm not. i'm going to work. >> reporter: many states seeing stunningly low temperatures. new york just yesterday was in the 50's. 20 hours later a near 60-degree

plunge. temperatures shattering a record of you 2026 j this is cold. i should have stayed home. >> reporter: the city's efforts to reach out for the homeless. >> we'll look for you later. >> reporter: amtrak said a large swing in temperatures is straining equipment and causing delays. in northern illinois it was snow that stranded three trains. 500 passengers stuck, forced to spend the night on board. >> we had stop, and we thought it would be 15 minutes, but no, it was nine hours. >> reporter: they finished the journey by bus the next morning. traveling by plane offered little relief. jetblue getting back in the air after making the unusual move of grounding it's jets in boston, new york, for 17 hours.

after two days airlines have canceled 2,000 flights. >> we've had cancellation african celebration of planes, trains, and buses. and i have four heart patients over 70 with no medication left. >> reporter: millions wait for warm up. >> reporter: close to 187 million americans feeling this dangerously cold air. just how cold was it? this was a cup of steaming hot water. within 30 minutes it froze solid. it's not expected to get above freezing until friday. >> 30 minutes, and it's solid? >> reporter: it was so hot it burned me when i brought it out, it was frozen solid. >> jonathan betz at penn station. thank you. the midwest is experiencing

record-breaking record. from maywood, illinois, a suburb of chicago, diane, describe it for us. how bad is it out there? >> reporter: actually it's getting a little bit better than it was yet, and even this morning. it's about three degrees in maywood, which is better than what we saw yesterday. but still cold, still dangerous. many problems in minnesota. they've seen--i shouldn't say a record number, but a lot more reports of things like hyperthermia and frost bite. i talked to the county hospital today, and oh another hospital in st. paul reporting that they had 26 cases just over the last four days of hyperthermia and frost bite where last year they only had something like 24-25 for the entire year. a lot of people going out with exposed flesh, not covering themselves up properly. six of those people were sent to burn centers.

i do have an update on the number of deaths. i think you said 11, but that number has gone up to 15. there were a few extra deaths reported in illinois. another death reported in indiana. most of those, many of those have been people out shoveling snow and suffering heart attacks. the other big problem out there right now are the roads. we have seen a lot of black ice out there. there is still a lot of blowing snow across highways, creating a lot of slippery conditions. we've seen a lot more people heading back to work. there are more people out on the road and therefore a lot more accidents. the emergency rooms have seen yesterday and again today people being out having some sometimes minor accidents, some injuries, and going into emergency rooms. tomorrow schools will be in session in chicago and in places like minneapolis, so there will

be a lot more people out and people need to be careful driving. >> we hoped that the death toll wouldn't climb, we feared that it would, and now it's gone from 11 to 15. have you heard that line of people many going out and trying to shovel, and you're warning people, don't do it because it's problematic, and so many people have died because they've been out shoveling snow. >> you see the job in front of you. >> meteorologist: yes, you don't realize the amount of energy expended by lifting such heavy snow. especially where it's very wet, heavy snow it's worse. we're talking about temperatures and wind chills. that's where it's dangerous, too. even though the coldest temperatures are now behind us, the coldest temperatures where this morning we still have extremely cold weather. tonight, not as cold as this morning, we are at a slow

gradual warm up. temperatures now for the northeast in the single digits and the teens. so if you can avoid shoveling the snow all in one big day, that's the thing to do. you want to take it slow, take it easy. listen to your body, and make sure that you drink a lot of hot water. stay warm, and you stay hydrated. as you look at our warm temperatures you can see this morning. it was impressively cold. so cold that we had records across the board from the southeast up to the northeast and in the midwest, too. new york, central park, new record for you, 4 degrees. behinminus 12 for chicago. let's talk about the number of states. 13 states with lifts of record low temperatures from this morning, and at least 45 of them are in that group. we had a lot of lows in the southeast definitely for florida, georgia, atlanta,

mississippi, especially. and we had these lows stretching up from the northeast where we had the single digit. when we talk about what we're expecting when we move on, high temperatures today, we're expecting record cold highs. we'll be tracking those and we'll show you what's coming in or should i say how fast the warm up comes in. >> i'm just happy to see 50s on the board. >> meteorologist: heading down to miami, are you? >> yeah, if i can get there. rebecca, we appreciate it. pushing for peace in south sudan as the world's newest nation is on the brink of civil war. representatives met today in ethiopia, but they refused to meet without the release of people arrested charged with the coup. earlier today i spoke with the campbell family, brad, kim,

katie and cassidy, american missionaries caught in the cross fire of violent south sudan. i asked them to take me back to the moment when they knew it was time to leave their compound and seek shelter with the orphans in their care, orphans that they had to leave behind. >> it came upon us quite quickly christmas eve. even though there was brief fighting it was pretty intense. the next morning we decided to make some phone calls to the state department and start just putting plans in motion. before we could get very far with the process bullets started firing, and we gathered all the children and ran in to the most secure room in the compound, and put as many people under the beds as we could because there was artillery either flying very near to our house or hitting our house. our house was shaking, and it's

made out of brick and adobe. we could hear machine guns and very nearby, and bullets hitting our roof. i really believe with all my heart that god kept us safe underneath those beds, and the fact that we weren't intruded upon by soldiers because our house would have made a very good stronghold for the soldiers to come inside and fire upon the other soldiers. so we just waited it out, and then made the decision to go to the u.n. compound because the fighting was obviously on our door step. >> when we made the decision to try to go to the u.n. compound for safety, we had gathered everyone together. we gathered up a few things to carry, and we left the house. we got maybe, i don't know, maybe a couple of kilometers from the house, and we heard

firing again. and we ran quickly as quickly as we could back to the house and hunkered down again, and waited it out. i contacted somebody at the u.n. who suggested a different route for us, and we were able to make it safely there. >> would you ask katie and cassidy to explain to us what it was like in those harrowing moments when bullets from flying overhead? >> for me, i guess i always heard stories about when we hear about people talking about the conflict that takes place in our types of countries, in south sudan because they're just coming out of war. moving there we knew it was something that we knew w could e

involved in. but i was out brushing my teeth when we came under fire. running inside and having the realization that this is it, this is what we heard stories about, and now i'm in the midst of it, it seemed so surreal. how quickly you step in that place of getting the children in safety, and done whatever you can to protect them came upon us instantly. this was one of those things that this is what you do as a natural instinct. >> what about you? >> it was crazy to me. the kids were in the room and underneath the beds before any of us. it was like, what is going on and what's happening? and the kids were pulling us under the beds. and so that was crazy that they knew just instinct to do it right away. >> yes, this is a sad reality of their worlds. when we made it to the base the children asked me, they said mama kim, is this your first

time to hear bullets like this one? i said, of course it is. i've never lived through anything like that before. they said, oh, not for me, i've done this many times. so it's disheartening that that is the sad reality of their world. the question is who is protecting who? >> the campbell family there, and okay, joining me now from washington, d.c. to talk more about the displacement in this region is dolte aqwae. good to see you again. you heard the report on the american missionaries caught in cross fire at south sudan. would others dealt with the same challenging challenges in bor? >> amnesty was in south sudan in the fall of last year, and at that point, as you know, we were

dealing with the beginnings of this crisis. you also had ongoing hostilities that were happening with sudan, so you had the beginning of humanitarian crisis, fighting, danger, you had some sign of a government crackdown in the sense that we were worried about restrictions on freedom of speech, media, and appearance of behavior that were disconcerting, but that was certainly different from what is happening now. now you have a full-blown humanitarian crisis. you have 200,000 people who have been displaced. >> that's what i want to get to. that's what i want to get into. is it next to impossible for humanitarian efforts to move forward in a very meaningful way without some kind of a

cease-fire? >> the cease-fire is essential. the peacekeeping force has been able to not only provide some safe haven for some of the displaced population, but also to facilitate the delivery of some of the humanitarian supplies. but it's clearly not going to be sustainable over a long period of time. so the cease-fire is essential to protect civilian lives. >> the need for cease-fire brings us to the political situation. we understand direct talks began on sunday between the two sides. the talks are on hold over detainees and a lot of other issues. are there any encouraging signs coming out of the talks of ethiopia? >> the fact that they're both sides are there is a huge step forward. i think the presence of all of the international players that have been involved in resolving the crisis in the civil war in

south sudan and sudan, notebly the united states has very high level of representation. the chinese government has also sent its high-level delegate, and all of these players have been trying to convince both sides that it is absolutely essential that they show statesmanship and cease the fighting. i think that's a good sign. >> here's where i want to go with this. why is this prove something difficult. the two principles in this conflict not only know one another, you they're in the same party. they're in separate tribes, but they know one another, they work together. they're in the same party. tell me this is about something more than pride and ego and power with 200,000 people currently displaced? >> i wish i could. but that's, unfortunately, probably a ladder part of it. we have got to remember that

this is a country that is just two years old. it is a region that has been racked by conflict and by arms sales that have been sent to all sides. there is very, very little to build on. >> i get that, but these two men work together on independence. they worked together on what you would think would be the most difficult part of this, and now they're having this fight over governing. >> that's true. that is very, very hard to understand, except you've got to remember that having one so-called fruit of independence to suddenly have to not to be accountable and to answer to a decision or a vote potentially that might actually reduce your ability to influence might be something very hard for someone who has been used to the force of arms, conveying what they want for the last 30 years.

this is why--this is absolutely an essential price that the country has to go through, and that the international community has to help south sudan get through in the right way. in other words, back to the negotiating and away from hostilities to solve this political crisis. >> as you know from the campbell story there is a lot of good will for south sudan, and a lot of folks who would like to get in and continue that good work. adotei akwei, with amnesty international. good to talk to you. >> thank you. >> let's do this now. let's get back to our breaking news, an american helicopter has crashed in the u.k. phil ittner fills us in with the details, phil, what do we flow beyond the obvious that a chopper has gone down? >> reporter: tony, we know a couple of things about the sequence of events. we were told originally the idea was to ditch in the sea.

there must have been some communication going on between the ground and this black hawk helicopter. it came down, we're told by authorities, around 7:00 local time. sorry, around 8:00 local time. u.s. officials here in the u.k. are reluctant to speak about the condition of the four crew members but local norfolk police that's out on the east coast of england are saying that there are four fatalities. this is an area of england out near the coast where there have been some very heavy weather appearance for the last few days, although this was not the worst hit in england. there is no direct confirmation that the weather had anything to do with this. we do know that authorities are in the area. they have cordoned off the site.

they're warning local people to stay away because there is live ammunition on the helicopter. but as to why this came down, this is happening as we speak, and there will be an investigation to fully figure out why this is happening. >> phil, appreciate it. thank you. the cold weather is likely to put a dent in a lot of budgets. ali velshi from "real money" will show us how it will effect the costs of everything from heating oil to food. we will also go live to the electronic show in las vegas.

>> an exclusive

"america tonight" investigative series >> we traveled here to japan to find out what's really happening at fukushima daiich >> three years after the nucular disaster, the hidden truth about the ongoing cleanup efforts and how the fallout could effect the safety of americans >> are dangerous amounts of radioactive water, leaking into the pacific eververyday? >> join america tonight's michael okwu for an exclusive four part series, as we return to fukushima only on al jazeera america is. >> the deep freeze across the country is not only causing americans to scramble for warmth with as many layers as you can put on, but it is big.

we'll talk about this and a whole lot more. "real money" coming up, ali good to see you. i would expect the price of heating oil is shooting through the roof. >> i'll tell you about that in a second. here in the northeast we use heating oil. a lot of people use natural gas but generally speaking our heat is from heating oil. half the country use natural gas, and natural gas prices have surged. and it's up a third higher than a year ago, but today spot prices. normally you buy commodities on future. the spot prices hit a new high. oil futures are not that high because they spiked in 2013. they're about where they were a year ago. home heating oil comes from crude oil. that's good news for homes in the northeast which use heating oil to heat their homes. electricity often comes from coal, some from natural gas. there are people who are out of

power, that of course is a separate issue, but the power used to heat your home, the fuel natural gas is the one that is going up. it's too early to tell what effect that will have in the coming months if the price of natural gas will settle down. we drill a lot of natural gas, it's a purely american commodity that we have a lot of. >> i don't know how much agriculture work is going on with the cold that is going on. the midwest has been hit hard, is agriculture fooling the effects? is. >> you and me, we're city slickers. i'm from canada, so i'm used to the cold, but you and i both live, is cold. and the you know, once an orange freezes, it's of no use for the juice market. there is winter wheat grown in the plains states.

that's at risk of being damaged. there was some know on the weekend in the places that grow winter wheat. frost and snow can save the wheat. but here's the thing there, is not a lot of growing going on in cold states, but it's hard to keep your cows, chickens fed and gaining weight. when you sell animals for slaughter or dairy you want them for hearty, and it's harder in this weather. you know how you burn more calories just to keep warm. if they're indoors, which they are. they can't be outside in this kind of weather, it's much more experience to heat those facilities that they're inside. the end result is if this goes on for a while the added cost to those farmers will be passed on to you. there is some chance that this cold weather could affect you in on many fronts in the store. your wheat products, bread, citrus and meat products.

>> there was a young woman in montana that we spoke to about a month or so ago in an early frost and the family had lost a large head of cattle. we'll follow up on this. the annual consumer electronic in las vegas, jacob ward. jacob, if you would, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: tony, i don't know what it is. it's almost like a rock concert quite of quality to it. 165,000 people here clamoring to show off their consumer electronics, stuff that they think is going to be the next iphone, the next ipad. the gamut is run here. there is self driving cars, drones, all manner of creations. but wearable computing. a year ago a little company called pebble debuted this watch

that i got on my wrist here and it set a record on the website kick starter. they asked for $10,000 to get it going, and ended up taking in $10 million because people want it so badly. this year, this up start company has really debuted a new even better version, actually legit piece of consumer electronic. it's the pebble steel. it's a watch that connects to your iphone, picks up it's internet connection. here it will show me just all of the terrible restaurant here at the convention center and how bad they are. considering that it came out of in where and it's making its debut, it's the trend that these electronics are following. >> how about that story on that

company through crowd sourcing, that's a terrific story. jacob, good to see you, jacob ward out in las vegas for us. dennis rodman getting more attention. >> what the hell you think? i'm standing here, look at these guys. look at them! >> his bizarre interview from north korea defending that country's government. that's next. also 50 years ago president lyndon johnson declared his war on poverty. we'll find out what has improved, and what has grown worse.

>> welcome back everyone to al jazeera america. breaking news, the u.s. reports one of its helicopters crashed in the u.k. killing four people. it went down on a training mission on the east coast of great britain. a push for peace in south sudan, groups met in ethiopia to help avoid a civil war. 200000 south sudanese have fled

their homes since december. the cold and snow across the u.s. has turned deadly. reports now that 12 people have been killed in today since extreme weather in indiana, seven in detroit. detroit is a city seeing record low temperatures. bisi onile-ere, how are people there coping? >> reporter: well, i can tell you, tony, you take one step out the door and people go right back inside. it's that cold. earlier today it was about negative four, but it feels a whole lot colder than that. right now i'm in a warming shelter, this is one of many here throughout metro detroit. many have been coming on their own. organizers with the detroit rescue mission, many have been hitting the streets looking for people to bring them in. there are roughly 19,000 hopeless people here in detroit, and the organization is being very proactive in making sure that everyone is safe until

these temperatures take a turn for the better. now i did speak with the organizer of this organization earlier today. he basically said right now their focus is on making sure that people are off the streets and their focus is about saving lives, saving people from the cold. i also spoke with a man who was homeless. he said right now he's just thankful he has a place to turn to when the temperatures get dangerously cold. >> unfortunately, there are more people who are homeless, and they need our services. this year we see more people than any other years we've seen in the past. >> i see people who are trying to brave the weather every day. sometimes i just have to pass out gloves myself to help keep people warm. i know how bad it is, and i know how i came from the weather. it's very dangerous out there

for others as well. >> a lot of people here tonight, they have a place to call home for the evening. just to give you an idea we don't have a clear estimate on how many injuries there have been, but there have have been a number of deaths related to these cold temperatures. to give you an example of how the organization is taking this seriously, they're keeping their doors open 24 hours a day. when there isn't enough space they're making sure that there is face available for anyone who comes here and needs a helping hand. >> makes sense, leave the doors open, bisi onile-ere for us in detroit. colorado avalanche killed one person today and swept up three others. the snow slide happened in the state's vale area. the survivers don't have life-threatening injuries. rescue teams are working to evacuate them. the senate took the first step towards extended jobless benefits for the long-term

unemployed. but the legislation still has a long way to go. people whose benefits expired just days after christmas joined president obama in calling on congress to pass the bill. >> as a single mother i worked many different jobs and never asked for a hand out while i raised two wonderful boys. both of my sons are serving in the u.s. military. it was very hard for me to let one of my boys serve a year in afghanistan, but i did, and he was proud to serve his country. i hope our leaders in washington can find a solution to help families like mine. >> mike viqueira is at the white house, we see this often, don't we, when there is a big issue, the president will bring someone forward to tell a particularly compelling story, and that was katherine hackett. >> reporter: that's right. she personified the issues and this is something that communication specialists do quite often. she rebutted one of the

principle republican arguments and arms from opponents of this extension of those long-term benefits that you talk about, and that is unemployment benefits discourage people from going out and finding a job. there is a great deal of terror controversy about that. president obama went out of his way, as well as ms. hackett, to state that was fault. here is basically where we are, tony. on december 28th because congress did not act to extend those long-term unemployment benefits. keep in mind this is an extension beyond six months. if you get on unemployment officially you get six months from your state. after that the federal government in tough times will extend those benefits. this time congress before leaving for the holidays did not extend the benefits, the results o1.3 million people including ms. hackett oh lost their unemployment benefits.

six republicans joined 55 democrats in order to move this legislation forward. that was something of a surprise. the thought was there wasn't going to be enough republicans. president obama made the case in the east room speaking after ms. hackett. here's what he had to say. >> obama: for the americans who join me at the white house today, and millions like them who were laid off in the recession through no fault of their own, unemployment insurance has been a vital economic lifeline. for a lot of people it's the only source of income they've got to support their families while they look for a new job. these aren't folks who are just sitting back. waiting for things to happen. they're out there actively looking for work. >> tony, this is only a three-month extension. where do we go from here? it still has to pass the senate, that's not a given. but in the house of representatives they're insisting that john boehner put out today that this be paid for.

it will cost $6.5 billion to extend those benefits for three months. unless you find cuts elsewhere, it won't be on the house floor. >> the argument of it being paid for. mike viqueira, thank you. this year marks 50 years since president lyndon johnson launched the war on poverty. a major part of that effort was helping people find affordable housing. decades later more than 5 million families depend on rental assistance from the government. and more than 1 million people live in public housing units. those units are managed by 33 housing authorities with varying degrees of success. melissa chan visited a housing project in san francisco. >> you don't really get to see a lot of positive things. >> reporter: drew jenkins walks me through the housing projects where he grew up and now works as an activist. it's notorious for drugs, decay and violence. he showed me where he was

wounded in a random shooting years ago, it shattered his pelvis. >> shot with an ak and six times with the 12 gauge. >> reporter: sunny dale with 800 units. at the corner marked the only retail store we came across residents had much to complain about. >> you know, the trash build up and all that, it's depressing. the parks are torn down, that's depressing. >> here's the so-called parks. if the neighborhood looks forgotten the city has plans to change that promising a multi million dollar repair and redevelopment projects that would create a mixed income community with gardens and open spaces, safe homes, green buildings and better schools. the promises go on and on. the utopia years away. meanwhile children here continue to play why squalor and in the

shadow of violence and crime. the housing project in great need of repair could not have been lyndon johnson's vision when he made housing the pillar of his policy 50 years ago, establishing the cabinet level of housing urban department known as h.u.d. residents said this area remai remained a pleasant place to live where people had jobs and saved money until they had enough to leave. >> the h.u.d. act was a print that the federal policy was not just about housing people, it's not just about building structures, it's building the people up who live there. >> reporter: if the goal years ago was public house to go help families especially african

american families to crime out of poverty, the in sunny dale the war on poverty failed years ago. >> this is filthy. we shouldn't have to live like that. >> reporter: the historic state of the union in 1964. >> we must as part of the revised housing and urban renewal program seek as our ultimate goal in our free enterprise system a decent home for every american family. >> reporter: decades after that speech drew jenkins works at the youth center trying to instill a sense of community. >> your house and your home is everything. that's where you're supposed to feel safe at. >> reporter: but for people who live here that has, indeed, been the dream but not the reality. melissa chan, al jazeera, san francisco. >> did you hear about this? did you see it? a bizarre and heated interview with dennis rodman today. dennis rodman is in north korea

again. david shuster is here. what the what, david? >> it was great television. thanks to nba hall of famer dennis rodman the world was given another reminder today why it's unwise to throw gasoline on burning fire. the fire is dennis rodman. even by dennis rodman's standards it was an epic meltdown. >> what the hell you think? i'm saying to you, look at these guys. look at them! >> reporter: cnn anchor chris quomo pressed dennis rodman about kenneth bay who has been held in north korean prison for more than a year. >> they have not released any

charges. >> let me say this-- >> rodman then tried to change the focus and he appeared to get choked up when talking about the sacrifice his entourage is making. >> you've got ten guys here. ten guys here's who have left their families, left their families to help this country as a sports venture. >> the country led by dictator kim jong-un and never mind his friendship with rodman, the north korean leader is accused of starving his fellow citizens, ordering mass executions, killing his own uncle and threatening with war south kor korea. charles smith serving as the american players spokesman. >> we're connecting people to basketball and people to people. >> and smith tried to shame cnn for veering away about the sports exchange. >> we're not here to talk

politician. outside that have any questions that come back through that is baiting to get us into politics. >> but when cuomo accused rodman of hiding. >> don't use these guys as a shield for you, dennis. >> listen, listen. >> anti-no shield. you hide behind a mic right now. these guys right here are doing one thing. we're going back to america and take the abuse. >> north korean leader kim jong-un is expected to attend the exhibition game tomorrow. as for rodman getting verbal abuse back in america, he won't have to wait to get home. a few players who traveled with him said this trip was a mistake thanks to rodman's outburst today. >> and a lot of discussion in the states? >> it came up in the white house briefing room, distancing the obama administration saying this was a private trip, and the nba players association condemned

the trip. dennis rodman essentially is alone with the players who took the trip. >> who thought this was a good idea? oh, the world of dennis rodman. people in lebanon--i'm doing it again. go ahead, maria. >> people in lebanon are using a single hashtag to protest violence going on in their country. we'll have that coming up.

>> a milestone in syria, the first shipment of weapons is headed to international waters

to be destroyed. we have more from beirut. >> reporter: these chemicals were taken from two different sites, transported, and they were loaded on to danish and norwegian ships. the ships moved out of the syrian waters into international waters where they'll wait there for more toxic chemicals to come. meanwhile there is a process of verification. making sure that these are the toxic chemicals that syria was supposed to transport. u.n. officials, despite they missed their deadline said they are on track. as far as they are concerned all of syria's chemicals are under u.s. supervision, and the plans to destroy these weapons have been declared operational.

to ability to use them now is zero. >> the war in syria has spilled into lebanon. there have been several deadly attacks including the assassination of a leading politician who opposed syria and hezbollah. and a teenager was killed in that bombing. now there is a protest to end the violence. >> reporter: it all started with a before and after picture. here is mohammed, 16 years old. he was with his friends december 27th taking a picture selfy in downtown beirut. this is the after picture. it is graphic. after a car bomb explosion. this is mohammed's body. he died because that have explosion. what followed was a vigil and protest that went online called "i'm not a martyr." they say that the word martyr is often misused by politicians to dehumanize innocent civilians killed. now people have been posting

under the #not a martyr. selfys these images. this summarizes what many people in lebanon feel. this says god, do something. i am giving up on you. >> maria, thank you. the winter olympics began one month from today. and russia is on a massive security lockdown. tight security is in place entire ski resort of sochi. it is a defining moment for russia and it's president vladimir putin, but there are many issues surrounding gay rights, human rights, cost overruns and we have more on what is being done to keep sochi safe. >> reporter: tony, let's take to you the very heart of sochi so you can see the area that the

russian security personnel will need to keep an eye on during the build up of the games and the games themselves. what a huge country this is. there are two main venues. the olympic park in a coastal cluster in downtown sochi near the black sea. and then other sports will take place 45 minutes away by train. now here is the headache for the russian security authorities. sochi is associated by the very edge of the caucasus mountains. and here they are. there has been raging there for years and years a war trying to create an islamic state. russia has fought two wars both

in the 1990's. now this map, according to the think tank, the heritage foundation, in order to protect the olympic villages in and around sochi, we learned from the ap according to the associated press, 37,000 police officers will be involved. they're all going to be in a huge sealed-off zone with surveillance cameras and jet fighters flying overhead. but it's still far from clear that they'll be successful in protecting the game because the terrain is difficult. the russian security forces stand in need of improvement. there is evidence we are told that some of them have been bribed to let bombers slip through in past incidents.

now in academic papers the heritage foundation said one of the biggest threats that exist in the run up and during the games is the so-called lone wolf. a single person, man or woman, it doesn't matter, operating on their own without back up is one of the major threats. while it may be easy to protect sochi itself because of the zone they're throwing around it, as we've seen in volgograd at christmas deadly violence that simply can't be ruled out between now and the end of the games. especially given the cheer size of the country. just look at that. that's a small portion of it right there. now tony, late word, "usa today," the newspaper reporting that a response company has up to five planes to evacuate u.s. ski and other teams.

they have seats for up to 200 people, and the ceo of the company called global response is talking about the unique challenge of sochi that is located in the shadow of a terrorist background. >> john, thank you. lindsay vonn announced today that she will not compete at the sochi games. vonn is bowing out to have surgery on her knee. this is really disappointing she is terrific to watch. >> this is also a huge blow for the team and it was nearly a year ago when lindsay vonn tore two ligaments in her knee and the sets backs will prevent her from defending her performance in the women's down hill. in her comeback she refor the

acl in a training crash in november and then two years later she sprained her mcl in france. she took to social media saying on twitter i'm devastated to announce i will not be competing in sochi. my facebook page has the whole story. she did everything she could to get strong enough to compete. but the reality is she will have to undergo surgery soon so she can be ready for the championships held in her hometown in vale, colorado. she's the most decorated skier in u.s. history. a cold in the down hill and a bronze in the super g only one of two women ever to win four overall world cup championships, and she's compiled 59 total world cup wins in her career. so who will bring home gold for the team? there one name to keep on the radar.

18-year-old micaela shive aschf. >> let's go back to the latest on the bitter cold. >> coming up on "real money," why the weather may mean that you have to shell out more on groceries, and how one entrepreneur is tapping in on the fastest growing part of the american booze market. all that and more in "real money."

>> every sunday night, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks... with the most interesting people of our time... >> as an artist you have the right to fail... that's a big right to have >> his work is known across the globe. but little is known about the gorilla artist behind the glasses... we turned the camera on the photographer shaking up the art world. >> 2... 1... that's scary jr... >> talk to al jazeera with jr only on al jazeera america (vo) al jazeera america we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents.

(vo) we pursue that story beyond the headline, past the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capitol. (vo) we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. (vo) and follow it no matter where it leads, all the way to you. al jazeera america. take a new look at news. >> a chill in the air, and that cold temperature, and it's the coldest point this morning. now we'll start to warm up. we'll see the high temperatures of the day. a lot of folks who stayed warm stayed in the west with 60s in california. california just a few days ago you were celebrating record high

temperatures, hard to believe when you think of the cold that we have in the east coast. a high today of 20. a high of 3 in chicago. 25 in atlanta. now this is definitely some records here. atlanta, 23 degrees. that broke your record that was set in 1884. another record that has been in place for a long time is athens, georgia. the last time it was this cold was 1905. now we have quite a bit of rain west of the mountains. the mountains themselves are getting significant snows in the next 24 to 36 hours, and we're going to be watching for freezing rain potential in parts of the southeast.

>> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with today's top stories. the u.s. air force reports that one of its helicopters crashed killing four people. it went down during a training mission on the east coast of britain. millions of americans are dealing with bitter coal temperatures today. at least 12 people have died. the severe weather gripping the nation reaching well into the deep south. president obama praised today's senate vote extending job benefits. house reports say the current proposal is not enough. talks aimed at ending the violence in south sudan